In a multicarrier system, the total bandwidth available to the communication system is divided into a number of narrower non-overlapping frequency sub-bands. A high rate data stream is thus divided into separate data streams each associated with a different frequency sub-band. Forward Error Correction (FEC) codes used on single channel communication systems can be readily applied to multicarrier communication systems. However, if interference or equipment failure impairs one of the carriers, the FEC is often unable to correct the resulting bit errors, and the entire multicarrier link is rendered unusable.
What is desired is an FEC configuration for multicarrier communication systems capable of correcting for the impairment of one or more carriers while offering good performance at relatively low complexity.